Marvel star helped make incredible scientific discovery while she was still in high school
Landing a role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is arguably the hottest ticket in town, with the OG Avengers of Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, and Jeremy Renner becoming some of the highest-paid stars in Hollywood.
Over 37 movies and numerous TV shows, the MCU has welcomed Oscar winners, including Cate Blanchett, Sir Ben Kingsley, Anthony Hopkins, Lupita Nyong'o, and more. There's no shortage of talent in the MCU, although some had some interesting career paths that brought them there. For example, Chris Evans used to be a children's board game model, while Simu Liu was a stock photo model, and Chris Pratt worked as a waiter at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. (as well as being a stripper).
2022's Thor: Love and Thunder welcomed the likes of Christian Bale and Russell Crowe to the world's highest-grossing franchise, while it also saw the return of fan-favorites like Jaimie Alexander's Sif, Idris Elba's Heimdall, and Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster.
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Chris Hemsworth was obviously the lead as the titular God of Thunder, coming a long way from when he was an appliance repairman who specialized in cleaning breast pumps. In a similarly out-there career turn, it turns out Portman was particularly accomplished in the science world.
Before graduating from Harvard with a psychology degree, Portman co-authored peer-reviewed scientific papers on environmental science and memory/brain imaging, as well as being a semifinalist in the 1999 Intel Science Talent Search.
Joe Scott notes that the future MCU star started her career in movies like The Professional, but under her birth name of Natalie Hershlag, she co-wrote a high school paper that discovered a new way to create hydrogen from sugar.
You can still read "A Simple Method To Demonstrate the Enzymatic Production of Hydrogen from Sugar" online, with Natalie Hershlag named alongside Ian Hurley and Jonathan Woodward in the October 1998 paper.
Carried out by Portman and the others in her sophomore year at Syosset High School, the independent study hoped to prove "environmentally friendly biotechnology for the utilization of renewable energy sources."
In a 2011 New York Times article that referred to Portman as a 'precocious scientist', Harvard mentor Abigail A. Baird said: "I’ve taught at Harvard, Dartmouth and Vassar, and I’ve had the privilege of teaching a lot of very bright kids.
"There are very few who are as inherently bright as Natalie is, who have as much intellectual horsepower, who work as hard as she did. She didn’t take a single thing for granted."
More than just maintaining a straight-A average, we need to remember that Portman was a rising star at this time.
Scott reminds us that Portman was so dedicated to her education, she even missed the premiere of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, where her career really took off for playing Queen Padmé Amidala.
There's a sense of irony here, and while admittedly not the MCU's most electrifying performance, Portman's role sees her play astrophysicist Jane Foster.
Replying to the revelation online, one person on Reddit wrote: "Why is everyone always surprised when someone who has risen to the top of their profession turns out to be brilliant?"
Another added: "It's funny, I know Natalie Portman is smarter than me and the better part of humanity... But I still can't buy her playing a physicist in Thor."
A third chuckled: "Like she wasn't already way out of my league..."